I was born in Poonch (Kashmir) and now I live in Norway. I oppose war and violence and am a firm believer in the peaceful co-existence of all nations and peoples. In my academic work I have tried to espouse the cause of the weak and the oppressed in a world dominated by power politics, misleading propaganda and violations of basic human rights. I also believe that all conscious members of society have a moral duty to stand for and further the cause of peace and human rights throughout the world.

Monday, March 31, 2014

In the following article Rupen Savoulian has highlighted some basic
facts about the US war of aggression that went beyond the imperial
ambitions to occupy and control Iraq because its ruler had refused to
bend to the diktat of Washington and Tel Aviv; in reality it became a
war of genocide in which at least a million Iraqis perished, millions
were made homeless and millions were made orphans and widows. The
invaders destroyed the social and economic structure of the country.
The economic destruction of this rich country where the agricultural
productivity fell by 90 percent shows the level of economic mayhem and
dislocation. To secure their interests, the invaders installed the
Maliki regime that facilitated the systematic destabilisation and
profiteering as planned by the imperial hegemon.

The writer has underlined the importance of remembering the date of
the invasion of Iraq adequately well. But it doesn’t come as a surprise
to me that the event this year has largely been ignored by the MSM as if
the American military and mercenary hordes went to Iraq in 2003 to do
good Samaritans’ job and having done so they had to move on to new
fronts and frontiers to do what they can! Such an apathetic negligence
of the media is also instrumental in misleading the vast majority of the
population of America while the European allies and sympathisers follow
them in their reporting that indirectly helps to justify war crimes,
war criminals and violations of international and humanitarian laws and
norms in this age. Luckily, antiwar organisations and reporters have not
been duped by the imperialist propaganda; they have tried to show what
this war was about and what sort of lies and falsifications have been
woven around the 2003 invasion and the subsequent events.

The present-day daily sectarian violence that is taking the lives of
hundreds of people is a direct result of American war. The Sunni-Shia
sectarianism has a long history stretching back to some fourteen
centuries. But there were no sectarian killings in Iraq on a genocidal
scale that have been set in motion by the American policies and the
present Iraqi administration of Maliki.

The writer has given much relevant information in this article and
suggested what the enlightened and anti-war organisations should demand
to hold the war criminals accountable for their enormous war crimes and
crimes against humanity.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

There are many people who are sincere in their view of the positive
role of religion. However, in my view, religion is also a more
complex and multi-faceted phenomenon. Along-with its positive sides are
many other aspects that are nefarious that have been instrumental in
downgrading human beings. These negative sides become apparent with the
institutionalising of religion that has been the norm in human history. This way, the religion becomes a power factor in society and those
holding power use it to further their ends that basically have little
to do with the positive aspects of religion.

In the hands of the ruling
strata of society religions have been a big asset. With the help of
clergy the rulers have imposed their will on the people as they chose.
This has been the general norm in most of the civilisations of the
world. If we see the role of religion in the present-day Muslim world
then we are face to face with the stark reality of the misuse of a
major religion, Islam. The destructive forces which claim to represent
'pure' Islam have been playing havoc with the people in the Middle
East, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Here religion instead of playing an
enlightening and sober part has been turned into a destructive tool of
ignorance, violence and anti-civilisation. As a result, ordinary
people suffer. Unluckily, the vicious circle of indoctrinated ignorance
and violence will continue.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

The U.S. government insists that
it abides by principles of international law, democracy and respect for
national sovereignty, but its actions often belie its words, with the
U.S. support for Saudi Arabia’s monarchy a stark example of the
hypocrisy, writes Lawrence Davidson.

Saudi Arabia is one of a handful of Middle East anachronisms: a
family-based monarchy that believes it sits at the right hand of God.
The Saud clan that rules in Saudi Arabia is both insular and fanatic. It
is devoted to the Wahhabi sect of Sunni Islam, perhaps the most strict
and intolerant manifestation of the religion.

Except for the religious details, there is really not much difference
between the respective outlooks of a Wahhabi true believer, a hard-core
Christian fundamentalist, and the Jewish extremists in Israel.

Like their Christian counterparts, the Saudis are proselytizers who
spend huge sums every year supporting fanatical preachers pushing their
message in far-flung parts of the world. And, like their Jewish
counterparts, the Saudis have an army equipped with more advanced
American weapons than they know what to do with. This, if you will,
mechanizes their fanaticism.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

A
reporter raises his hand to ask a question as US Army Gen. Ray Odierno,
Commander of US Forces-Iraq, delivers an operational update on the
state of affairs in Iraq during a press briefing at the Pentagon, June
4, 2010. (Photo: DOD photo by Cherie Cullen / Flickr)On the 11th anniversary of the war in Iraq, the US mainstream
media’s decontextualized rendering of violence in Iraq fails to explain
political divisions and struggles in Iraq or how this violence is a
direct consequence of the US invasion and occupation.

A quick and dirty way to begin conveying what happened to US coverage
of Iraq after US forces withdrew is through gross numbers. A
Lexis-Nexis search of New York Times coverage in one-year
slices (March to March) showed 1,848 articles concerning Iraq in 2006-07
and 1,350 in 2007-08. Once the drawdown of US troops began, New York Times
coverage of the conflict plummeted to 359 in 2010-11 and continued to
fall thereafter – although the political crisis within the country, and
its attendant violence, ground on and on. This suggests that “the story”
had always been about the American errand in Iraq, not Iraq itself, and
certainly not the swathe of human misery and destruction US
intervention left in its wake. When American troops left, they took the
media’s story with them in their baggage.

Tuesday, March 04, 2014

The basic point is that Pakistan will not get that commodity called
“peace” in Kashmir, Afghanistan and Central Asia by pursuing the ends
and means of Washington and some local elites only. For peace to
blossom the goals of other parties also have to be considered; and they
are many. The logic of the political games pursued today presupposes
some kind of victory or domination of “our side”: neither feasible nor
desirable for peace. Hence, the need for some visions for peace
politics is Kashmir, Afghanistan and Central Asia for tomorrow or the
day after, with the hope that they can be useful when you have come to
the end of the road with current policies. Nothing of this is easy; and
without visions even impossible.

The British empire drew three lines with disastrous effects for
Pakistan: the Durand line in 1893, a 1,600-mile wound defining the
border with Afghanistan, dividing the Pashtun nation–the biggest nation
in the world without a state–into two parts; the McMahon line of 1914
defining the border with China in ways unacceptable to the Chinese; and
the Mountbatten line of 1947 leading to the catastrophic violence of the
partition. These lines have to be negated, liberating Pakistan from
that past. Thus, there is no natural law saying that Punjab cannot be
an entity with an open border and free traffic of people and ideas,
goods and services, even if the two parts belong to separate countries.
Lahore and Amritsar are two sides of the same coin, like the two parts
of the Pashtun nation and the parts of Kashmir. Let the twain (or more)
meet, e.g. as envisioned below.